The Hobbit, Django Unchained are most-torrented movies of 2013

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey topped the list of most torrented movies for 2013, per a report from TorrentFreak. The movie's 8.4 million estimated downloads beat Django Unchained and Fast and Furious 6, which were numbers two and three on the list, respectively.

Two movies on the list, The Hobbit and Iron Man 3, crossed a billion dollars in their worldwide gross. The two smallest gross earners on the list were Gangster Squad at number seven with 7.2 million estimated downloads, and Silver Linings Playbook at number five with 7.5 million estimated downloads.

Television piracy also had a big year, both in download numbers and industry members who tentatively endorsed it as a means to an end. Both Game of Thrones Director David Petrarca and Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes cited piracy as a practice with an upside. But many in the industry still worry about the effect on revenues. Peter Jackson, director of The Hobbit trilogy, said in 2009 that piracy "could lead to the death of films." At the tail end of 2012, Sushi Girl director Kern Saxton said that he appreciates having people watch the film, even through piracy, but that indie films need money to survive; he hopes pirates follow up with a purchase.

Director John Kaos made his feelings known via his actions: he seeded pirates with what appeared in the first few minutes to be his movie Pornopung, but which actually turned out to be home video involving his own shaven scrotum. Kaos told TorrentFreak that he does not “bear any grudges against people who download [his] film” but that he would “obviously prefer if they chose to see it in theaters.”